Oddball farmer in Madeleine probe
Ryan Parry In Pedragosa 25/01/08

Police hunting the “creepy” stranger seen near the resort where Madeleine McCann was snatched have questioned an oddball pig farmer who lives three miles away.

Officers first interviewed Joaquim Jose Marques 20 days after Madeleine vanished but ruled him out as a potential suspect.

Now, they have interviewed him for a second time after Kate and Gerry McCann released a sketch of the scruffy stranger seen acting suspiciously around Praia da Luz in the days before the abduction.

Dreadlocked Marques, in his early 30s, yesterday defiantly refused to answer questions, yelling: “Leave me alone. Look at this face, is this the face in the picture?”

Portuguese police doubt he is the man in the sketch. And McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “As far as we are concerned, the hunt for him continues.”